by Camille Lendor
and she did.
She jumped down the curved stairway, but
she didn’t falter on the rutted carpet stairs
or crash into the wall or abrade her head
against their descending edges.
The girl floated.
Something picked her up and carried
her along the banister’s bend—
the girl glided to the bottom of the stairs
only to have the mystery drop her—
disbelief masking gravity’s impact on her knees.
Bruised, she thought that it might be fun to do it again,
but even the mosquito knew to stay quiet.
CAMILLE LENDOR is a writer from Toronto living in South Bend, where she is an MFA candidate in poetry at the University of Notre Dame. Her work has appeared in The Malahat Review, PRISM international, and Canadian Literature, among other publications.
The mosquito told the girl to jump can be found in Augur Magazine Issue 7.1.
